Bay State Conference looks to expand

Class might be out for summer, but for the athletic directors of the 12 Bay State Conference schools there is plenty of work to be done.

Keith Pearson/Staff Writer

Class might be out for summer, but for the athletic directors of the 12 Bay State Conference schools there is plenty of work to be done.

The conference sent out a notice May 31 hoping to find three schools to increase membership to 15 and reorganize the current 12-team, two-division setup that has been in place since the early 1990s into a three-division format for the 2013-14 season.

According to the press release, in an attempt to balance each division, the conference would like to add two small schools and one large or medium school. The enrollment for the 12 schools in the 2011-2012 year ranged from Dedham with 774 students to Framingham with 2,040.

Projections for the next five years show nine schools getting larger while Norwood, Milton and Dedham – the three smallest schools in the BSC – seeing declines or no growth in student population, widening the gap between those three schools and the rest of the current Herget Division.

“The purpose of expansion is to create equity in competition relative to school size/population,” said the release. “Additional factors to be considered when reviewing applications include: educational mission, location, facilities and sport offerings for scheduling purposes.”

Schools that are interested have until Sept. 15 to apply to Braintree athletic director Mike Denise.

“I would be in favor of the expansion if we can find the right schools,” said Norwood athletic director Brian McDonough. “I would like to see two small schools with a population around 1,000 and one middle school around 1,100-1,400. I’m not sure if we will find these schools.”

The discussion of expansion was something mentioned when Dedham mulled an invitation to join the Tri-Valley League before deciding to remain in the Bay State Conference in March 2009.

At the big end or medium end, schools the BSC would like to see apply include Newton South and Boston Latin of the Dual County League, Bridgewater-Raynham of the Old Colony League and Hingham of the Patriot League, according to sources.

Sources say the schools being targeted to join Norwood, Milton and Dedham include Weston and Wayland of the Dual County League, Foxboro and Canton of the Hockomock League, Westwood of the Tri-Valley League and Watertown of the Middlesex League.

Westwood superintendent John Antonucci said that his school has not “given it any serious consideration at this time” citing the school’s long history with the Tri-Valley League and that it would take “an extremely compelling reason” to jump to the BSC.

Dedham baseball coach Kevin Quaranto as well as girls soccer and girls basketball coach Don Savi said they are open to expansion, provided that division champions are based on a balanced schedule. Quaranto said he would like to games against the Carey Division schools like Framingham and Weymouth count toward deciding a division title.

A possible issue for Dedham is that depending on the sport and the teams brought in, it could result in Dedham teams losing the ability to qualify by way of the Sullivan Rule, which allows teams that play 70 percent or more of their league games against higher division opponents to qualify for the MIAA Tournament based on its record against teams in the same division and lower.

One issue that could be a potential sticking point for expansion is that the revamped state football playoff, which could have been finalized by the MIAA Board of Directors on June 7, was sent for a vote by the full membership in the fall. The schools shot down a similar plan in March 2010.

McDonough said he expects the vote for a statewide football playoff to succeed this time around, and that once that passes attempts to realign will be much easier.

While the press release says that the conference is in search of three teams, even that is not set in stone. There are some people within the conference that would like to find six teams for an 18-team conference, while others do not see the need for expansion.

“If it ain't broke, don’t fix it,” said Walpole athletic director and baseball coach Bill Tompkins, whose team would be bumped up to the middle division.